Many recreational vehicles such as travel trailers include on-board toilet facilities that include waste holding tanks. These tanks are emptied from time to time, typically into sewage disposal system such as holding tanks or sewer systems that are provided at recreational vehicle camp grounds, truck stops, or other service facilities.
Typically, a recreational vehicle carries with it a sewage hose that can be sealably attached at one end to an outlet port of an on-board sewage tank, with the free end draining into the sewage disposal system. In recreational vehicle parks, the sewage disposal systems often include an inlet port that is normally covered when not receiving sewage. When emptying the on-board sewage tanks, the cover is removed from the inlet port and it is coupled to the free end of the sewage hose to create a seal between the free end and the inlet port. Sewage can thus be drained from the on-board tanks into the disposal system with a minimum of spillage or leakage of sewage or sewer gases. After the sewage is dumped, the sewage hose is typically flushed by emptying “dirty water” tanks into the sewage disposal system using the same process. These dirty water tanks contain relatively clean water refuse that is collected from showers or sinks in the recreational vehicle. Thus, the sewage hose is at least partially cleaned using the “dirty water” prior to the time that it needs to be re-stowed on the vehicle.
As you might expect, emptying the sewage tanks of a recreational vehicle and handling the sewage hose are at best a mildly unpleasant tasks. Accordingly, it is readily imagined that even small improvements in this process would be readily welcomed by recreational vehicle owners and operators.